If you can allow yourself to go back to the Louisville game, you may recall the seemingly endless instances of Cardinals receivers running alone due to yet another coverage bust from the Ole Miss secondary.
It was a less-than-ideal time for everyone involved and watching, minus Louisville. They looked like they were having fun with it.
The most egregious of these busts came with just under 5 minutes left and Ole Miss leading 38-24. Given the amount of time left and a two-score lead, all Ole Miss needed to do was not give up explosive plays and force Louisville to eat clock on long drives.
Instead, on third and 6, Louisville quarterback Lincoln Kienholz hit a WIDE WIDE WIDE open Lawayne McCoy for a 54-yard touchdown. Again, given the situation, a worst case scenario for Ole Miss in terms of seeing the game out comfortably.
On Monday at his weekly press conference, Golding referenced the disaster when asked about coverage issues:
It doesn’t matter if you’re playing Louisville, Charlotte, or Delta State. If you call Three Cloud, and they don’t roll to Cloud, it’s going to be a touchdown.
And that’s what we’re looking at today. What happened on the back end to give Louisville that easy score.
After the touchdown on the ESPN broadcast, Greg McElroy (who I think is perfectly fine at his job) broke down the coverage, but he mistakenly thought Ole Miss called Cover 3.
As you’ll see below, Ole Miss shows a pre-snap look of two-high safeties (FS and SS), meaning they want Kienholz to think he’s looking at either Cover 2 or Cover 4. However, as soon as the ball is snapped the coverage will change.
If Ole Miss called standard Cover 3, the responsibilities on the back end would be as follows:
Free safety Edwin Joseph would rotate to the middle of the field to take the middle third, corner Jaylon Braxton (top of screen) would take the right third, and corner Jalyn Crawford (bottom of screen) would take the left third. In the middle of the field, strong safety Joenel Aguero would rotate down and follow his coverage responsibilities from there.
But, as Golding said on Monday, he didn’t call Cover 3, he called Cover 3 Cloud. What’s the difference? A great question!
In Cover 3 Cloud, both safeties make up 2 of the 3 players in the Cover 3.
Joseph (FS) and Crawford (CB bottom) have the same responsibilities as in standard Cover 3, but Aguero (SS) should roll to the right third, with Braxton (CB top) sitting down. With Braxton sitting down, Cover 3 Cloud is designed to take away an easy access throw to one side of the field. In this case, Braxton’s side.
However, as you’ll see below and remember from the game, Aguero didn’t roll to the right third, and that’s what Golding meant when said not rolling to Three Cloud. And we know Aguero should’ve rolled because of what Ole Miss did underneath. Braxton (CB top) sits in a line of five underneath players after Blake Purchase (edge at bottom of screen) drops out.
If executed properly, Kienholz should’ve been throwing into an 8-man coverage with five players at an intermediate level and three players deep.
Golding didn’t say Aguero by name because he’s not a jerk, but, to hit on another point he made on Monday, 10 guys got the call right and one didn’t for whatever reason.
Joseph and Crawford rolled into deep coverage, five players sat at intermediate depth, and Aguero rotated down to help in an area where help was not needed. That created the massive hole in the defense that Louisville exploited.
The good news, as Golding also noted, is that blowing coverages is much more fixable than not having talented players. Ole Miss has the big, fast, and strong boxes checked, but there is work to be done in not losing those advantages due to catastrophic mistakes.
